I wasn't there, but some little birds have told me there was quite a bit of work done on the Reo 50V project this past week. Since the last report the frame has been sandblasted and primered. One of the worst issues on this truck was that it had a severely broken rear spring. This is one of those times that you wish an old truck could talk, because there must be a great story about how the hell this happened. No one knows. So where do you find a replacement spring for a seventy year old Reo wrecker ? Well, you don't. Ken found an old spring shop in New Hampshire that could make two new rear springs to a engineering drawing that Warren Richardson made up. This week John Gott and Warren disassembled the new springs, painted the leaves (using KBS products, I'm told), and re-assembled them. Then Ken and the crew installed them on the chassis. One other issue with the truck was that the Timken-Wisconsin T-77 transfer case was shot. Fortunately nearly every big WW2 6x6 used this transfer case, so they are not hard to come by. The chassis from the Biederman parts truck was rolled into the shop and the transfer case was removed. Disassembly revealed it is in fine condition, some new seals and it will be good to go.

"One of the worst issues on this truck was that it had a severely broken rear spring. This is one of those times that you wish an old truck could talk, because there must be a great story about how the hell this happened."

I believe this happened quietly over many years of sitting dormant. Usually salt which has an affinity for water will form a layer of rust between the spring leaves. As more water is attracted to the salt the rust will "grow" in thickness and eventually bend the spring beyond it's yield point breaking the spring.